The Beginning
by Nate Dubya
Summary: Ever wonder what REALLY happened on the ARK, 50 years ago? Well...No one knows for sure, but this is, in my opinion, the most probable.


Author's Note: This is an interesting switch for me, because of the organization. Partially, it's computer journals. Denoted by the obvious computer-type commands, the typing is done by the user, denoted in the "LOGON=QUERY?" line. Other parts are in 1st person perspective, denoted by "//NAME\\".  
March 1st: Whoa! Reviews! People actually read...Alright! Sweet. Um, questions. This is a one chapter story, however, I'm currently working on a second story, "The Insanity", which deals with what was going through Shadow's mind at the time of SA2. If you liked this, you'll like that one. And, possibly, I'll update this one (I think it could be longer). And be sure to visit my site (www.NDcomics.tk). No stories, just comics. And...um...yeah. In other news, I talk too much.  
  
And now, the story...  
  
DATE=5.062022  
May 6 2022  
LOGON=QUERY? G. ROBOTNIK  
COMMAND=QUERY?RUN  
RUN=CMDLNE?JOURNAL.TXT  
RUN=JOURNAL.TXT  
...  
...  
COMPLETE  
JOURNAL.TXT=CMD?EDIT  
JOURNAL.TXT  
Today is the cumulation of all of my hopes and dreams. Today...today, I submitted my plans for a Space Colony to NASA for approval. If it is approved, I've already found an area for it: a large asteroid, pulled in from the Asteroid field so many eons ago...and the right size for the type of equipment I hope to build in it...Also, my daughter gave birth today...It's a girl, Maria, named after my own mother...I hope she grows in her image...but enough emotional weakness. I am a scientist, above all, and I must return to my work. END  
...  
...  
END  
CMD?SAVE  
SAVING JOURNAL.TXT  
...  
...  
COMPLETE  
COMMAND=QUERY?LOGOFF  
LOGGINGOFF...  
...  
G.ROBOTNIK LOGGED OFF  
CMD?SHUTDOWN  
  
//Gerald Robotnik\\  
I return to my work, but it is so hard to concentrate...My life and dreams lie in the plans the government has. If they refuse it, my life's work will have been for naught...but no. It will not have all been for nothing, but all of my other projects can't be researched any further without ARK, and all I will have are my machines...And my one partially sucessful project, a machine that can turn a living, breathing creature into a robot...but I have it locked in suuch a way that the creature retains their free will, because somene might use it to their evil purposes...  
I shake myself from my thoughts. I cannot concentrate, so I may as well go to bed, since I won't get a response until tomorrow at the earliest. I go to my bedroom and lay down. The last thing I see before I fall asleep is a strange creature, black with red stripes, and spines, not entirely unlike a hedgehog...   
  
DATE=05.072022  
May 7 2022  
JOURNAL.TXT  
The plans have been approved! Now my life and my research have really begun. When the colony is built, I will have a place to research and make anything, anything to help these poor people on this planet. Yes...to help them. I estimate several years to build ARK, so I must get to work...immediately!  
  
****  
  
ARK CORE=STATUS  
UPLOAD=COMPLETE  
CMD=DATE?11.092030  
DATE=11.092030  
November 9 2030  
LOGON=QUERY?G. ROBOTNIK  
SEARCHING...  
SEARCHING...  
PASSWORD=QUERY?*****  
PASSWORD="MARIA"  
CONFIRMED  
SPEECH RECOGNITION CIRCUITS ACTIVATED  
Welcome, Doctor Robotnik.  
Greetings, computer. What is the status of my uploaded files?  
Please wait...  
SEARCHING...  
SEARCHING...  
Upload complete, Dr. Robotnik. However, all files from the JOURNAL directory dated 05.082022 through 11.082030 have not been uploaded.  
That is unfortunate, however, it isn't critical to my research. Are all the files from folders Ultimate Life Form A 1.0 through U.L.F.B. 3.2 been uploaded? They were located under my notes on the Ultimate Life Form, tests Alpha and Beta...and vital to my work....  
Understood, Doctor Robotnik. Activating search now...  
SEARCHING...  
Affermative, Dr.Robotnik.  
Thank you, computer.  
You are welcome, Dr. Robotnik.  
Logoff.  
Affermative...goodbye, Dr. Robotnik.  
LOGOFF=DONE  
CMD?SHUTDOWN  
CONFIRMED  
SHUTDOWN  
  
DATE=11.092030  
November 9 2030  
LOGON=QUERY?M. ROBOTNIK  
SEARCHING...  
SEARCHING...  
PASSWORD=QUERY?*****  
PASSWORD="GRDPA"  
PASSWORD CONFIRMED  
INITIATING AI...  
COMPLETE  
INITIATING VOICE CONTROLS  
COMPLETE  
Good morning, Miss Robotnik.  
Please, call me...Maria.  
Affermative, Maria.  
Thank you.  
You're welcome.  
Initate JOURNAL.TXT, please.  
JOURNAL.TXT for user M.ROBOTNIK initated...you're welcome.  
SPEECH TO TEXT CIRCUITS INITAITED  
JOURNAL.TXT  
Boy, I've never seen Grandpa Robotnik so excited! Of course, I am too, but still...he keeps on running around, typing on keyboards, muttering someting about some file, ULFP, or something...I saw some graphics on the screen when he was working...it looked like a lizard! It looked icky. Well, at least it wasn't real. And I'm sooooo happy Ivo didn't come with! He's always torturing poor animals...even if he is my brother, I don't like him much. And daddy's always drunk...since mommy died, I've always wanted to get away from Daddy and Ivo...anyways, I want to go explore! This place is huge, even to a mature 8-year-old like me! Computer, save and log off.  
Processing...saving...logging off....goodbye,...Maria.  
Goodbye!  
LOGGING OFF  
SHUTTING DOWN  
  
DATE=05.062035  
May 6 2035  
USER=G.ROBOTNIK  
JOURNAL.TXT  
I must finish this project...It's almost done...I am driven. Ever since I found that alien compound on the exterior of this asteroid, I've been working on this...according to the plans, the upper half of the asteroid is all research, equipment, etc., while the lower half is for habitation modules for the space colony. That isn't entirely true anymore. I have explosives placed in the lower half of the asteroid. Today, my fleet of robots completed a large protrusion of the colony, inside the lower half. Codename: Eclipse Cannon. If the fragments of alien technology I found on the outer side of the asteroid are true, then we will need this weapon. Too soon. Work continues on my ULF project. The prototype is near completion. With this, any attacker will be destroyed.   
SAVE LOGOFF  
  
DATE=05.072035  
May 7 2035  
USER=M.ROBOTNIK  
JOURNAL.TXT  
I'm worried. All grandpa works on now is his big lizard. He wants to help people, but he never eats or sleeps. I'm scared of him, now...I've never seen him this obsessed with a project before! I also saw his big project he's been working on: some kind of big gun. I'm more proficient with computers than grandpa knows. Not only is this gun big...he has it plugged into the core of ARK, drawing energy straight from the seven chaos emeralds! Any gun with that much power...  
I'm really scared now.  
What is he so scared of?  
LOGOFF SHUTDOWN  
  
//Maria\\  
I walk along the long corridor, igonoring the blue blobs grandpa has to defend ARK. I walk into the control center, looking out the pane of glass on the wall at the Earth, turning slowly. Grandpa is next to me, looking out the window also. He looks at me.  
"Maria, I have something to show you."  
I follow him into the next room. Inside a capsule-like structure with images of data flowing inside it.  
"Maria, what is in this capsule is the cumulation of my life's work."  
He presses a button on a panel. The data streams to the center, forming a small, glowing ball at the center of the capsule. This ball forms the outline of a hedgehog-like figure, and suddenly I'm blinded by a flash of light. When it fades, a golden-white figure steps from the container.  
"Grandpa, is that...an angel?"  
Grandpa chuckles. "No, Maria, that is the Ultimate Life Form...Shadow."  
I look at the hedgehog. "Why Shadow?"  
Grandpa looks at him. "Right now, he's gold from the residual energy of the Chaos Emeralds which created him. When it fades, he will be a pure, dark black."  
Shadow looks at me. "Who...am I?"  
Grandpa cuts in. "You...are the Ultimate Life Form, Shadow."  
"Who are you?"  
"I am your creator, Gerald Robotnik."  
He turns to me. "And...you?"  
"I'm...Maria."  
Shadow smiles.  
  
****  
//Shadow\\  
6 mos. later.  
THOOM!  
THOOM!  
I run down the corridor with Maria, pausing only long enough to lock down each door and activate the defences. We make it to the secondary control room in time to see another GUN military ship heading for ARK.  
"Shadow..."  
"I see it, Maria."  
I look at the ship, and decide to speak my mind.  
"Maria, we need to get away!"  
"You're partially right, Shadow."  
She walks over to the Emerald Evac Tube, the tube which leads from the core emerald facility to areas all over the station. Pressing a button, Maria retrieves the emerald from the tube and tosses it to me. Suprised, I catch it, but before I can move, she hits the "Space Capsule Evac" button. It slams up around me, locking me in.  
"Shadow, please...help those poor people down there."  
I pound on the glass, not even having the presence of mind to use Chaos Control. "Maria!"  
I hear gunfire outside the door. The entrance grows red with laserfire. Maria hits the button to detonate the EET, rendering it useless, and then presses the button to launch the capsule.  
My last sight of Maria is her, standing by the controls, standing brave, as the door blows into pieces under the barrage...  
****  
//GUN\\  
I lead my troops into the door, firing. As robotic commander of the GUN troops, I am not programmed to do any less in hostile territory. I see the last vestiges of smoke from a capsule launch clear...  
And one girl stands tall at the control panel. I hold my hand up, to stay my troops, and walk towards her, computing my surroundings. I decide to inquire.  
[OBJECTIVE NOT FOUND]  
[IDENTIFY YOURSELF]  
"Go away!"  
[IMPOSSIBLE. SURRENDER]  
"No!"  
[YOU ARE OUTNUMBERED]  
"I don't care. Bring your troops in one by one, or all at once. I don't care."  
The girl stands, by a control that says "Intruder Repel".  
I stop. I know what that button will do. If she presses that button, laser cannons, powerful enough to vaporize anything on contact, will pivot out and destroy anything in their range.   
That button was a kamakazi switch.  
"I may die, but I will buy time for those whom I love."  
I start to say something. I start to do something. My gun starts to swing up.  
But the operative word is 'start'.  
My microprocessor barely has enough to process the only possible outcome of her action.  
"None shall pass."  
Her finger comes down.  
****  
//Shadow\\  
I look up through the wall of the capsule. Even through the reddish flare of burning atmosphere, I see the secondary control room erupt into flame.   
"MARIAAAA!!!"  
I press my hand against the tube, sobbing.  
Maria...  
Muhhhreeeeaahhh...  
The name rolls around my skull. Five minutes ago, the name stood for something.  
Happiness. A smile. Bright, shining eyes. A perfect body.  
Love.  
A living, breathing human being.  
And now...  
The mass of protein and carbon formerly known as Maria cease to have any coherent meaning.  
All that remains   
is the name.  
Maria.  
Then my capsule crashes into the second GUN ship and I know no more.  
  
"..."  
  
And then....  
  
The hissing of pressurized air.  
Cold...  
I stand, legs weak after so long...  
"Sonic? Is this some kind of trick?"  
...My master... 


End file.
